Albuquerque, NM – The New Mexico Ice Wolves defeated the Amarillo Wranglers in overtime on Saturday night by the score of 2-1. It was the second game of a two-game set at Outpost Ice Arenas in Albuquerque, NM.
Luca Ganz made his fifth start of the season for the Wranglers, carrying a record of 2-2 on the season coming into the matchup. The Ice Wolves started goaltender Andy Vlaha between the pipes, who had a record of 4-2-0-1 entering the contest.
The only goal of the first period belonged to New Mexico when the puck drifted into open ice at the left point of the Wranglers’ zone and Bryce Johnson skated into it and fired a slapshot into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. The goal came 8:15 into the first period and was assisted by Rasmus Leijonhielm. 13:14 into the first, Amarillo’s Morley Phillips got into a fight with New Mexico’s Max Matthews, where Phillips was able to take down the Ice Wolves defenseman with a few well-placed punches.
The second period was scoreless, but the Wranglers were buzzing on offense spending a lot of the second frame in the New Mexico zone. Andy Vlaha came up with a few big saves to keep the Wranglers off the board. Towards the end of the second period, the Ice Wolves got a few good chances of their own, but timely saves from Luca Ganz kept the score 1-0 heading into the second intermission. Shots were tied 19-19 after 40 minutes.
Down by one and in search of a goal, the Wranglers’ top line connected for Amarillo’s first goal of the game 10:33 into the third period. Jack McDonald found Ben Ivey moving in stride over the Ice Wolves’ blue line where he connected with Jack Ivey alone in the slot who was able to slide a backhand shot past Vlaha to tie the game up 1-1. Jack Ivey’s goal was his team-leading 12th of the season and his second in two games. No more scoring occurred in the third period, so we headed to overtime.
2:19 into overtime, the Ice Wolves went to the power play and just 49 seconds later, Yusaku Ando scored to win the game for New Mexico. Despite the loss, the Wranglers came away with 3/4 standings points on the road trip. Luca Ganz stopped 26 of 28 shots faced in the loss. The Wranglers will return home to take on the Lone Star Brahmas on 11/17 and 11/18. You can get your tickets online at panhandletickets.com.